History of the Prophets and Kings


The History of the Prophets and Kings, more commonly known as Tarikh al-Tabari or Tarikh-i Tabari or The History of al-Tabari is an Arabic-language historical chronicle completed by the Muslim historian Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari in 915 AD, presenting a history of the entire world, all the way from its creation, down to the Abbasid era, up until the time when the text was completed. Al-Tabari's Tarikh is considered one of the most important sources for early Islamic history, and it appeared during an intense period of canonization of Islamic history, representing a culminating prism through which future Muslims read and learned about the past. According to Fred Donner, "it is reasonable to consider al-Ṭabarī's work as a representative product of the early Islamic historiographical tradition, if not, indeed, as the culmination and crowning glory of that tradition."
Al-Tabari arranges his material into annals, meaning chronologically, as opposed to biographically, which makes his work useful for understanding broad historical themes. His work is also not sectarian, and is broadly representative of the mainstream Islamic view. Tabari also often cites conflicting versions of the same event when he is aware of them.
Al-Tabari focuses on a limited number of themes relevant to his interests. Al-Tabari writes extensively about the pre-Islamic history of Persia, but very little space about the histories of Ancient Greece or the Roman Empire. Likewise, significant space is devoted to recounting Old Testament history, but very little to the life of Jesus and narratives concerning the history of the Christian community. Much more attention is given to Iran and Iraq compared to Syria and Egypt. He devotes much more space to documenting political uprisings and battles compared to more mundane but significant matters of everyday society such as taxation, commerce, industry, agriculture, and so forth. This selectivity is likely a product of a combination of al-Tabari's own interests as well as what sources of information were themselves able for access to al-Tabari as he composed his history.
Another feature of Al-Tabari's work was to introduce methods of hadith into it, meaning that he would supply isnads for the reports he mentions. This was important for the ta'rikh genre as it had, by then, been seen as lacking in rigor by Islamic scholars specialized in the hadith sciences. In one sense, Al-Tabari can be viewed as having combined the formats of khabar and ḥadīth.
An appendix or continuation, was written by Abu Abdullah b. Ahmad b. Ja'far al-Farghani, a student of al-Tabari.

Main episodes

Al-Tabari's history is presented as a master narrative or history from an Islamic point of view, ultimately dedicated to demonstrating that Islam is the true religion. The main episodes of Al-Tabari's master narrative are:
  1. The creation of the world by God
  2. The many prophets God sends to warn humanity
  3. The history of the empires before Islam. Special focus on Iran.
  4. Dedicated histories of the South Arabian kingdoms and northern Arabs pre-Islam. Focus on Mecca and the Quraysh.
  5. A life of Muhammad.
  6. The succession of caliphs after the death of Muhammad.
  7. The ridda wars.
  8. The early Islamic conquests during the reign of Umar and afterwards.
  9. Early civil wars, especially those of Shiite and Khwarij groups.
  10. The overthrow of the Rashidun Caliphate by the Umayyad Caliphate, followed by the overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate by the Abbasid Caliphate
  11. A history of Abbasid rule
  12. The succession of governors, commanders, and other figures that represent the human embodiment of the Islamic tradition during this time

Context

A number of other master narratives of pre-Islamic and Islamic history were written in the era of Al-Tabari. The most well-known is Ibn Ishaq's Al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah, which largely focuses on the life of Muhammad. Another is the Kitab al-Maghazi of Al-Waqidi, the Kitab al-futuh of Ibn A'tham al-Kufi, and the Futuh al-buldan of Al-Baladhuri. The Book of Idols of Ibn al-Kalbi focuses on the religious pre-Islamic history of Arabia. There was also one annalistic work predating that of Al-Tabari: the Ta'rikh Khalifa ibn Khayyat. This work roughly uses the same outline/approach as does Al-Tabari, with the exception that it omits a discussion of pre-Islamic history. It is also much shorter in general than Al-Tabari's. Another known Ta'rikh is that of Al-Ya'qubi, which has a moderate Shiite orientation. Al-Ya'qubi covers some topics in more detail that are more briefly or not at all covered by Al-Tabari, including administration, and commentary on India, China, and Egypt. The Kitab al-ta'rikh of Ibn Habib covers early Islamic history with a focus on administrative matters. He also covers biographies of hadith scholars and the region of Al-Andalus. Other works to this effect were written as well.

List of books/volumes

Editions

Editions include:
  • An edition published under the editorship of M.J. de Goeje in three series comprising 13 volumes, with two extra volumes containing indices, introduction and glossary.
  • An edition published under the editorship of Muhammad Abu al-Fadl Ibrahim in 10 volumes
  • A Persian digest of this work, made in 963 by the Samanid scholar al-Bal'ami, translated into French by Hermann Zotenberg.
  • An English translation in 39 volumes, published by the State [University of New York Press] from 1985 through 2007. Various editors and 29 translators. , , Author: Tabari, Publisher: SUNY Press